So Cal Regionals 2017

On September 22-24, 2017, So Cal Regionals moved from the E-Sports Arena in Santa Ana to the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim. I personally loved it because it meant more room and all events would be clumped into one room. It also meant that it would be in a walkable distance to Disneyland. It was a great choice even though it realistically wouldn’t need to take up the entire venue or even entire floor. It only needed to occupy a ballroom which was still pretty huge.

Many games were represented at this major FGC tournament. Street Fighter V was the headliner as it was once again a premiere event on the Capcom Pro Tour. Marvel vs Capcom Infinite made its major tournament debut within a week of it being released, and many were anxious to show off what they have been practicing since getting their hands on the game. This game was also part of the “Battle of the Stones” tour. Tekken 7: Fated Retribution also had many international attendees as it was part of the Tekken World Tour. Pokken Tournament was there too as it had a $10,000 pot bonus from the tournament organizers of EVO. Other games that were there included Killer Instinct, Guilty Gear XRD Revelator 2, BlazBlue Central Fiction, UNIST, Injustice 2, King of Fighters XIV, and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo.

Besides the main tournament games, there were demos for upcoming games. First there was the Final Fantasy Dissidia game which looks fun if you’re a huge fan of the Final Fantasy series and love being part of a team. The other is Fantasy Strike which is an independent developing game with lots of in depth mechanics for those that are used to playing fighting games yet with simplified controls. I had a ton of fun playing both titles.

I’ve been used to playing Street Fighter in video game mode, but never would I imagine that it would be available to play as a TCG game. That’s exactly what happened as I tried out playing this game which actually has some mechanics I would use in a fighting game.

This may be my favorite So Cal Regionals yet. I loved the venue and the proximity of many things around it. It was awesome making new friends and seeing old friends too.